crime time Archives - Tachyon Publications

December 23, 2019

THE VIOLENT CENTURY, a tale only Lavie Tidhar could imagine, is an NPR Favorite of 2019

Rick Klaw blog best of 2019, central station, chronophlogiston, crime time, jason sheehan, lavie tidhar, maxim jakubowski, npr, review, the violent century, unholy land, 中央星站 0

The Violent Century; cover by Sarah Anne Langton — Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

Jason Sheehan names Lavie Tidhar’s THE VIOLENT CENTURY as one of NPR’s favorite books of 2019.

The world right now is full of superhero stories. In movies and on TV, in comics and graphic novels. But Lavie Tidhar, with his sharp eye for absurdity (and stellar world-building powers), gives his heroes a literary moment, bringing them to the page in a world where American, British, Russian and Nazi supermen fought in World War II and shaped everything we know of 20th and 21st century history. It begins like a classic John le Carré story, with an old, retired hero called Fogg being brought in to discuss an old case file. But where it ends up is like nothing that anyone but Tidhar could imagine.

CHRONOPHLOGISTON offers similar sentiments.

Mr. Tidhar has a staccato, stream-of-consciousness style of writing (at least in this book) that reminded me of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. It takes some getting used to, but soon enough feels natural and makes for a brisk and engrossing read. Mr. Tidhar creates a grim and atmospheric world; the European post-war scenes evoked for me the imagery of Carol Reed’s The Third Man.

Maxim Jakubowski for CRIME TIME includes Tidhar’s UNHOLY LAND among the best reads of the year.

Unholy Land; cover by Sarah Anne Langton — cover by Sarah Anne Langton

There’s a Chinese edition of Tidhar’s award-winning CENTRAL STATION (中央星站).

January 8, 2019

Lavie Tidhar’s gripping thriller UNHOLY LAND appears on even more Best of the Year lists

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized best of 2018, crime time, fantasy literature, howard freedman, lavie tidhar, maxim jakubowski, review, sean guynes-vishniac, the endless bookshelf, the jewish news of northern california, unholy land, world literature today

Further accolades for Lavie Tidhar’s damn good UNHOLY LAND.

Joining previous notices from NPR, LIBRARY JOURNAL, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, THE GUARDIAN, B&N SCI-FI & FANTASY BLOG, CRIME TIME, and THE SPECULATIVE SHELF, both FANTASY LITERATURE (without comment) and THE ENDLESS BOOKSHELF name the novel as one of the best of 2018.

THE ENDLESS BOOKSHELF:

Science fiction is that mode of literature in which the metaphor is to be taken literally. Lavie Tidhar’s gripping thriller follows writer Lior Tirosh on a return visit to his native land, Palestina, a Jewish state established in east Africa at the turn of the twentieth century. All the writings by Tidhar that I have read are deeply intertextual, playing with the ideas of literature, science fiction tropes, and the identity of the writer. Unholy Land is explicitly Clutean in its intertextuality, employing terms and conceits introduced by John Clute in the Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997). It is great fun, very tricky : a smile painted upon a skull. Tidhar’s other characteristic is fearlessness and UNHOLY LAND is a look into the dark heart of a nation founded upon exclusions and barriers.

Maxim Jakubowski at CRIME TIME says the book is a must.

A novel which can be read on all sorts of levels, each as rewarding as each other, whether as sheer entertainment or serious speculation, making Tidhar a rather unique writer who seldom comes up with the expected and for whom each book is a challenge to the imagination. This is damn good (as was his A MAN LIES DREAMING, which flirted with the dangerous premise of an alternative reality Hitler as both sleuth and second class author…). A must.

In WORLD LITERATURE TODAY, Sean Guynes-Vishniac praises the story.

Like Tidhar’s other work, UNHOLY LAND is a complex and metatextual narrative, moving between first-, second-, and third-person narrators, that theorizes the work speculative fiction does—the possibilities and alternatives it imagines—and questions the worth of the “fantasy” writer in a world where nation-states maintain and legitimize their existence through the oppression of whole groups of people. It is, unsurprisingly, a powerful meditation on the ethics of history and the power of borders, an analogy, no doubt, to the border walls both on the West Bank and in Trump’s presidential promises as much as to the ideologized divides that drive military and state conflict. UNHOLY LAND is a call to imagine and fight for alternatives.

Howard Freedman for THE JEWISH NEWS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA enjoys the challenging UNHOLY LAND.

At one level, the novel functions as a sort of hard-boiled thriller, but Tidhar, raised on a kibbutz and now living in Britain and writing in English, is no run-of-the-mill novelist. Rather, he is a significant figure in today’s science fiction scene, and this dimension infuses the novel. The borders in question in Palestina turn out to be not only ones dividing territories, but ones separating different spheres of reality. It gets complicated, and the unconventional storytelling (the narrative is in the first, second and third person) can sometimes make it difficult to assess what’s happening. But the bumpy ride is quite worthwhile.

For more info on UNHOLY LAND, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

December 12, 2018

Lavie Tidhar’s stunning, thrilling UNHOLY LAND continues its assault on Best of the Year lists

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized adam roberts, best of 2018, books bones & buffy, chile, crime time, la tercera, lavie tidhar, maxim jakubowski, review, sarah anne langton, spike gelato, the book lover's boudoir, The Guardian, the speculative shelf, unholy land

The notices pile up for Lavie Tidhar’s enthralling UNHOLY LAND.

THE GUARDIAN, CRIME TIME (selected by Maxim Jakubowski without comment), and THE SPECULATIVE SHELF all select the novel as one of the best books of the year.

THE GUARDIAN (Adam Roberts):

Lavie Tidhar’s UNHOLY LAND (Tachyon) extrapolates from the historical plan to establish Israel in east Africa rather than Palestine. It’s a gripping thriller: clever, bloody, ironic and twisted.

THE SPECULATIVE SHELF (Spike Gelato):

UNHOLY LAND is a stunning achievement. It is packed to the brim with engaging ideas and features a captivating story that I could not stop puzzling over. There is such an ethereal and intoxicating quality to the story and Tidhar’s writing that I found myself floating through the chapters, not always sure what was happening, or whose perspective we were seeing, but knowing that I wanted to keep reading. The intersecting story threads twisted my brain into a pretzel and I loved it.

THE BOOK LOVER’S BOUDOIR praises the work.

I really enjoyed this book though it baffled me at times. UNHOLY LAND is about a dozen different things at once and I never really knew what to expect. In one breath I was reading a noir mystery then the next page I was caught up in an alternate history and before I could say WTF I found myself reading about multiple earths. This is truly remarkable and unique book. I had no idea what was going to happen or where the author was going to lead (or drag me) next.This is a truly unique and interesting reading experience. I loved every page.I definitely want to read more by this author.

BOOKS, BONES & BUFFY enjoys the challenging book.

Tidhar’s latest is a challenging but ultimately satisfying read that deals with histories, both real and imagined.

Reading a Lavie Tidhar book is like being in a fever dream. Events, characters, places and impressions swirl around you, creating a sense of unease, or confusion, or sadness. Tidhar pieces the parts of his stories together with magical thread, and connections which seem tenuous at first turn out to make sense later on. I’m in awe of his writing abilities, and although this book may be classified as speculative fiction, I can see this sitting comfortably on a shelf alongside more traditional literary works.

For more info on UNHOLY LAND, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton